February 02, 2011
February 01, 2011
Penny for Your Thoughts
Well,my,my...
Kids sure are getting more vocal these days. And true,they are matching our intellect if we are not on our toes.
This is Adora Svitak-one prodigy to behold.
Watch this prima donna of a gifted kid and believe!
Kids sure are getting more vocal these days. And true,they are matching our intellect if we are not on our toes.
This is Adora Svitak-one prodigy to behold.
Watch this prima donna of a gifted kid and believe!
Jesus is in Every Book
Yes, this is one great presentation of Jesus from page one to the final pages of the Bible.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Happy Chinese New Year 2011
Well, tomorrow is Chinese New Eve once more and I will be celebrating it with my sister-in-law at a Golf resort nearby.
I wish to extend my blessed new year greetings to all of my blogging friends and those who are constant visitors to my blog.
Also to wish you Happy New Year as we usher in the New Year of the Bunny Rabbit is the delectable Amber Chia
Kong Hei! Kong Hei!
I wish to extend my blessed new year greetings to all of my blogging friends and those who are constant visitors to my blog.
Also to wish you Happy New Year as we usher in the New Year of the Bunny Rabbit is the delectable Amber Chia
Kong Hei! Kong Hei!
January 20, 2011
More Bad News for Malaysia
Not only have foreign fund managers down-weigh investments in Malaysia,today Shannon Teoh reported in the Malaysian Insider today (20 January 2011)that Malaysia is ranked in fifth place for illicit money amongst developing economies.
According to a report by US-based financial watchdog Global Financial integrity (GFI) released this month,.illicit money outflows from Malaysia has tripled to US$68.2 billion (RM208.1 billion) in 2008 from US$22.2 billion in 2000.
GFI defines illicit financial flows as generally involving the transfer of money earned through illegal activities such as corruption, transactions involving contraband goods, criminal activities, and efforts to shelter wealth from a country's tax authorities.
The report titled Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2000-2009 said that illicit financial outflows from Malaysia totalled US$291 billion (RM888 billion) in that period.
It said that the increase was “at a scale seen in few Asian countries.”
“The volume of illegal capital flight from Malaysia has come to dwarf legitimate capital inflows into the country in recent years,” said the report.
Top of the list of 125 developing countries was China at US$2.18 trillion in that period while Philippines, at 12th, was Malaysia's closest regional neighbour at US$109.3 billion.
Zimbabwe was 73rd at US$4.1 billion and Myanmar at 85th with US$2.9 billion.
The report said that it is clear that significant governance issues affecting both the public and private sectors have been playing a key role in the cross-border transfer of illicit capital from the country.
It noted that there have been media reports that large state-owned enterprises such as national oil company Petronas could probably be driving illicit flows.
GFI said its research indicates that political instability, rising income inequality, and pervasive corruption are some of the structural and governance issues that could be driving illicit capital from many developing countries.
“In the case of Malaysia, the additional factor could well be the significant discrimination in labor markets which move people and unrecorded capital out of the country,” it stated.
GFI identified deliberate trade mispricing - which allows companies to avoid paying taxes — as the cause of 54.7 per cent of illicit outflows from developing countries.
The report said that between US$1.26 to US$1.44 trillion flowed out from developing countries alone in 2008.
“Increasing transparency in the global financial system is critical to reducing the outflow of illicit money from developing countries,” the report said.
According to GFI, illicit financial flows pertains to the cross-border movement of money that is illegally earned, transferred, or utilised.
The Washington-based GFI says that it promotes national and multilateral policies, safeguards, and agreements aimed at curtailing the cross-border flow of illegal money.
It is a programme under the Center for International Policy, which was founded in 1975 to promote a US foreign policy based on international cooperation, demilitarization and respect for human rights, according to its website.
So, I do hopepolicy makers will study this seriously particularly its ramifications.
It may just cause more outflow of foreign funds to happen if we are not careful!
Property:The Magic RM100bil Mark
This is the first time transactions value has reached this figure
The likelihood of property transactions breaching the RM100 billion mark is definitely possible.
For the period, January to November 2010, a record RM96.77 billion were transacted according to Knight Frank Malaysia managing director Eric Ooi.
He remarked that this was the first time transactions value has reached such figures.
Considering the penchant of Malaysians for property investments, Ooi is of the opinion that it is unlikely that property values would fall. He believes that even if it may not rise as much as it did last year, the uptrend is there.
Ooi, together with Henry Butcher chief operating officer Tang Chee Meng, said property value rose between 30% and 40% last year.
Tang added that he had never seen such record growth for the property market in 30 years.
“The condominium market saw a price rise of between 60% and 100% between 2003 and 2008. This pales in comparison to the rise in value of landed units which rose as high as 40% in just one year. If one were to average out the rise in condominium prices, it is about 20% a year,” Tang said.
Earlier, in his overview of the Malaysian economy and the Malaysian property market, director general of Valuation & Property Services Department Abdullah Thalith said it was very significant that the transaction volume between the 11-month period increased 12.2% year-on-year, but the value of transactions increased at a higher rate of 35% from RM71.67bil to RM96.77bil.
“The recovery of the Malaysian economy has reinvigorated the overall property market,” he said.
In terms of lending in the broad property sector, the purchase of residential property took up the lion share of bank loan, at 58.8% compared with the purchase of non-residential property, at 22.1%. Construction took up 9.6%.
“Credit expansion for the broad property sector in the banking system increased from RM342.09bil as at the end of September 2009 to RM391.25bil as at end-September 2010,” he said.
“This means the residential property sub-sector remained the main mover of the property market,” he said. In this residential market, transactions in Kuala Lumpur recorded a growth of 8.2%, Selangor 7.2%, Johor 3.6% and Penang (island) 9.7%.
Terraced houses continued to dominate the market, especially in Selangor with 27,165 transactions, Johor with 12,555 transactions and Penang 4,358 transactions.
The city of Kuala Lumpur recorded more condominiums changing hands, 10,333 units versus terraced housing at 3,756 units.
Let us see how the trend pans out in 2011.
The likelihood of property transactions breaching the RM100 billion mark is definitely possible.
For the period, January to November 2010, a record RM96.77 billion were transacted according to Knight Frank Malaysia managing director Eric Ooi.
He remarked that this was the first time transactions value has reached such figures.
Considering the penchant of Malaysians for property investments, Ooi is of the opinion that it is unlikely that property values would fall. He believes that even if it may not rise as much as it did last year, the uptrend is there.
Ooi, together with Henry Butcher chief operating officer Tang Chee Meng, said property value rose between 30% and 40% last year.
Tang added that he had never seen such record growth for the property market in 30 years.
“The condominium market saw a price rise of between 60% and 100% between 2003 and 2008. This pales in comparison to the rise in value of landed units which rose as high as 40% in just one year. If one were to average out the rise in condominium prices, it is about 20% a year,” Tang said.
Earlier, in his overview of the Malaysian economy and the Malaysian property market, director general of Valuation & Property Services Department Abdullah Thalith said it was very significant that the transaction volume between the 11-month period increased 12.2% year-on-year, but the value of transactions increased at a higher rate of 35% from RM71.67bil to RM96.77bil.
“The recovery of the Malaysian economy has reinvigorated the overall property market,” he said.
In terms of lending in the broad property sector, the purchase of residential property took up the lion share of bank loan, at 58.8% compared with the purchase of non-residential property, at 22.1%. Construction took up 9.6%.
“Credit expansion for the broad property sector in the banking system increased from RM342.09bil as at the end of September 2009 to RM391.25bil as at end-September 2010,” he said.
“This means the residential property sub-sector remained the main mover of the property market,” he said. In this residential market, transactions in Kuala Lumpur recorded a growth of 8.2%, Selangor 7.2%, Johor 3.6% and Penang (island) 9.7%.
Terraced houses continued to dominate the market, especially in Selangor with 27,165 transactions, Johor with 12,555 transactions and Penang 4,358 transactions.
The city of Kuala Lumpur recorded more condominiums changing hands, 10,333 units versus terraced housing at 3,756 units.
Let us see how the trend pans out in 2011.
January 19, 2011
Moderate Upgrade for Axiata's Share Price
Following he recent DiGi and Axiata Celcom tie-up ana;ysts are giving the thumbs up to Axiata for a buy. They based this on an expected cash savings of some RM2.2 billion over 10 years.
The two telecommunications companies, Celcom and DiGi had on Tuesday entered into a three-yearnetwork collaboration pact, where both parties will collaborate on sites, access transmission, aggregate transmission and trunk fiber transmission which will cover 218 sites under Phase 1.
Axiata remained OSK Research's top pick for domestic and regional telecoms exposure, given the strong prospects accorded by its regional mobile assets. It said the progressive ramp-up of sites over 10 years implies that the bulk of capital expenditure (capex)/operational expenditure (opex) savings would be back-loaded.
It gave a buy rating and a RM5.80 target price on Axiata, but maintained its neutral call on DiGi with a target price of RM24.40. OSK expects the cost savings from the collaboration to boost DiGi’s earnings from financial year 2012 (FY12) on top of the internal cost-down initiatives already in place.
"We believe the savings in terms of opex will be more apparent for DiGi, given that network cost constitutes 12% of DiGi’s revenue versus 10% for Celcom," it said in a report.
HwangDBS Vickers Research also gave similar calls on Axiata and DiGi, but lower target prices of RM5.10 and RM22.90, respectively.
It said that Celcom Axiata Bhd continues to do well especially in the broadband segment in addition to exposure in fast-growing overseas markets including Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Overall, HwangDBS said it is neutral on the DiGi and Axiata Celcom development, given expected marginal impact on FY12F earnings and its discounted cash flow-based (DCF) valuations.
"Assuming 50:50 capex to expense savings ratio (and 50:50 savings proportion between DiGi and Celcom), this could expand DiGi’s and Axiata’s FY12F Ebitda margins by 0.1-0.3 percentage points. It could also raise DiGi’s and Axiata’s target prices by 20 sen and 5 sen respectively," it said.
Meanwhile, Alliance Research has raised its FY12 earnings projection for DiGi and Axiata by 9.2% and 3.8% respectively. It also increased its target price for DiGi to RM26.50 from RM24.10, but maintained that for Axiata at RM5.42 per share.
It said the tie-up is timely as cost efficiency is pivotal in expanding margins given the saturated telco market in Malaysia and anticipates more similar tie-ups between players in the future.
To my best bet, it looks like Axiata will possibly ascend to the RM5.20 level at best bat.
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